Chavarat lashes out at MEA union
- Published: 2/07/2009 at 02:38 PM
- Online news: Politics
Interior Minister Chavarat Charnveerakul has lashed out at the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) labour union for threatening to cut off power to government offices which haven't paid outstanding power bills totalling over a billion baht.
Mr Chavarat linked the threat to the union's stalled demand for a 2,000-baht monthly cost of living allowance.
He said the MEA labour union first came up with the demand for the 2,000-baht allowance and later threatened to cut off power supplies to 26 government offices. Although the union denied the power cut threat had anything to do with its allowance demand, they were not being reasonable, he said.
He thought it was possible that the 26 government offices had not paid their power bills, as the union complained, but he did not know why because all government agencies were allocated an annual budget for this purpose.
However, the union should not have raised this matter as a threat at this time, he said. Despite union leaders' denials, it could not be separated from the demand for a 2,000-baht allowance.
The minister said he agreed the allowance should be paid to employees on salaries of 15,000 baht a month or less. But those earning up to 50,000 baht per month should not be entitled to it, as the union was now demanding, he said.
According to the MEA union, government agencies owe a total of 1.02 billion baht in electricity charges. For instance, the Finance Ministry has an outstanding bill of 7.5 million baht for the past three months, the PM's Office owes 16 million baht and the Defence Ministry 200 million baht.
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- Writer: BangkokPost.com
